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(a) Building on decades of scientific research, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have determined that persistent exposure to elevated levels of community noise is responsible for public health problems including, but not limited to: compromised speech, persistent annoyance, sleep disturbance, physiological and psychological stress, heart disease, high blood pressure, colitis, ulcers, depression, and feelings of helplessness.
(b) The General Plan for San Francisco identifies noise as a serious environmental pollutant that must be managed and mitigated through the planning and development process. But given our dense urban environment. San Francisco has a significant challenge in protecting public health from the adverse effects of community noise arising from diverse sources such as transportation, construction, mechanical equipment, entertainment, and human and animal behavior.
(c) In order to protect public health, it is hereby declared to be the policy of San Francisco to prohibit unwanted, excessive, and avoidable noise. It shall be the policy of San Francisco to maintain noise levels in areas with existing healthful and acceptable levels of noise and to reduce noise levels, through all practicable means, in those areas of San Francisco where noise levels are above acceptable levels as defined by the World Health Organization's Guidelines on Community Noise.
(Added by Ord. 274-72, App. 9/20/72; amended by Ord. 278-08, File No. 081119, App. 11/25/2008; Ord. 75-14
, File No. 140226, App. 5/28/2014, Eff. 6/27/2014)
(a) "Ambient" means the lowest sound level repeating itself during a minimum ten-minute period as measured with a type 1, precision sound level meter, using slow response and "A " weighting. The minimum sound level shall be determined with the noise source at issue silent, and in the same location as the measurement of the noise level of the source or sources at issue. However, for purposes of this chapter, in no case shall the ambient be considered or determined to be less than: (1) Thirty-five dBA for interior residential noise, and (2) Forty-five dBA in all other locations. If a significant portion of the ambient is produced by one or more individual identifiable sources of noise that contribute cumulatively to the sound level and may be operating continuously during the minimum ten-minute measurement period, determination of the ambient shall be accomplished with these separate identifiable noise sources silent or otherwise removed or subtracted from the measured ambient sound level.
(b) "Director" means the Director or department head of any City department having administrative or enforcement responsibilities under this Article or any other provision of the Municipal Code regarding noise control, as well as his or her designee.
(c) "Dwelling Unit" means
(1) a dwelling space consisting of essentially complete independent living facilities for one or more persons, including, for example, permanent provisions for living and sleeping;
(2) a room in group housing, even if such room lacks private cooking facilities and private plumbing facilities, such as rooms in senior citizen housing, single room occupancy or residential hotels, dorms, hostels, or shelters; or,
(3) a housekeeping room as defined in the Housing Code.
(d) "Emergency work" means work made necessary to restore property to a safe condition following a public calamity or work required to protect persons or property from an imminent exposure to danger or work by private or public utilities when restoring utility service. This term shall not include testing of emergency equipment.
(e) "Fixed source" means a machine or device capable of creating a noise level at the property upon which it is regularly located, including but not limited to: industrial and commercial process machinery and equipment, pumps, fans, air-conditioning apparatus or refrigeration machines.
(f) "Low frequency ambient" means the lowest sound level repeating itself during a ten-minute period as measured with a sound level meter, using slow response and "C" weighting. The minimum sound level shall be determined with the music or entertainment noise source at issue silent, and in the same location as the measurement of the noise level of the source or sources at issue. However, for purposes of this chapter, in no case shall the local ambient be considered or determined to be less than: (1) Forty-five dBC for interior residential noise, and (2) Fifty-five dBC in all other locations. If a significant portion of the ambient is produced by one or more individual identifiable sources that would otherwise be operating continuously during the minimum ten-minute measurement period, determination of the low-frequency ambient shall be accomplished with these separate identifiable noise sources silent or otherwise removed or subtracted from the measured ambient sound.
(g) "Noise level" means the maximum continuous sound level or repetitive peak sound level, produced by a source or group of sources as measured with a sound level meter. In order to measure a noise level, the controls of the sound level meter should be arranged to the setting appropriate to the type of noise being measured. For example, the settings should be slow response for continuous noise sources and fast response for noises with rapid onset and decline.
(h) "Person" means a person, firm, association, copartnership, joint venture, corporation, or any entity, public or private in nature, but shall not include the City and County of San Francisco.
(i) "Place of Entertainment" has the same meaning as the term is defined in San Francisco Police Code Section 1060.
(j) "Powered construction equipment" means any tools, machinery, or equipment used in connection with construction operations which can be driven by energy in any form other than manpower, including all types of motor vehicles when used in the construction process of any construction site, regardless of whether such construction site be located on-highway or off-highway, and further including all helicopters or other aircraft when used in the construction process except as may be preempted for regulation by State or Federal law.
(k) "Property plane" means a vertical plane including the property line that determines the property boundaries in space.
(l) "Public Property " means property leased or owned by a governmental entity, to which the public or a substantial group of persons has access, including but not limited to any street, highway, parking lot, plaza, transportation facility, school, place of amusement, park, or playground located within the City and County of San Francisco.
(m) "Residential Property" means any property that has at least one dwelling unit and has been approved for human habitation by the City and County of San Francisco.
(n) "Sound level," expressed in decibels (dB), means a logarithmic indication of the ratio between the acoustic energy present at a given location and the lowest amount of acoustic energy audible to sensitive human ears and weighted by frequency to account for characteristics of human hearing, as given in the American National Standards Institute Standard S1.1, "Acoustic Terminology," paragraph 2.9, or successor reference. All references to dB in this chapter refer to the A-level or C-level weighting scale, abbreviated dBA or dBC, measured as set forth in this section.
(o) "Limited Live Performance Locale" has the same meaning as the term is defined in San Francisco Police Code Section 1060.
(Repealed by Ord. 278-08, File No. 081119, App. 11/25/2008)
A person measuring the outside noise level shall take measurements with the microphone not less than four feet above the ground, at least four and one-half feet distant from walls or similar large reflecting surfaces, and protected from the effects of wind noises and other extraneous sounds by the use of appropriate windscreens. A person measuring the inside noise level measurements shall take measurements with the microphone at least three feet distant from any wall, and the average measurement of at least three microphone positions throughout the room shall be used to determine the inside noise level measurement.
(Added by Ord. 274-72, App. 9/20/72; Ord. 278-08, File No. 081119, App. 11/25/2008)
(Added by Ord. 274-72, App. 9/20/72; repealed by Ord. 278-08, File No. 081119, App. 11/25/2008)
It shall be unlawful for any person authorized to engage in waste removal, collection, or disposal services or recycling removal or collection services to provide such services so as to create an unnecessary amount of noise, in the judgment of the Director of Public Health. For the purpose of this Section, noise emitted by equipment shall not be deemed unnecessary or without justification if the person engaged in such services hast to the extent the Director of Public Health has Judged reasonably feasible, incorporated available sound-deadening devices into equipment used in rendering those services.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, it shall be unlawful for any person authorized to engage in waste removal, collection, or disposal services, or recycling removal or garbage-collection services to operate hydraulic compaction or mechanical processing systems on any truck-mounted waste, recycling, or garbage loading and/or compacting equipment or similar mechanical device so as to create mechanical or hydraulic noise exceeding 75 dBA when measured at a distance of 50 feet from the equipments. This maximum noise level does not apply to the noise associated with crushing, impacting, dropping, or moving garbage on the truck, but only to the truck's mechanical processing system. All other waste disposal or collection noises are subject to the Director of Public Health's judgment as described in this Section.
(Added by Ord. 274-72, App. 9/20/72; Ord. 278-08, File No. 081119, App. 11/25/2008)
It shall be unlawful for any person within any residential area of the City and County to repair, rebuild, or test any motor vehicle or nonstationary source in such a manner as to cause unnecessary, excessive or offensive noise.
(Added by Ord. 274-72, App. 9/20/72)
(Added by Ord. 274-72, App. 9/20/72; repealed by Ord. 278-08, File No. 081119, App. 11/25/2008)
(a) Except as provided for in Subsections (b), (c), and (d) hereof, it shall be unlawful for any person to operate any powered construction equipment if the operation of such equipment emits noise at a level in excess of 80 dBA when measured at a distance of 100 feet from such equipment, or an equivalent sound level at some other convenient distance.
(b) The provisions of Subsections (a) of this Section shall not be applicable to impact tools and equipment, provided that such impact tools and equipment shall have intake and exhaust mufflers recommended by the manufacturers thereof and approved by the Director of Public Works or the Director of Building Inspection as best accomplishing maximum noise attenuation, and that pavement breakers and jackhammers shall also be equipped with acoustically attenuating shields or shrouds recommended by the manufacturers thereof and approved by the Director of Public Works or the Director of Building Inspection as best accomplishing maximum noise attenuation.
(c) The provisions of Subsection (a) of this Section shall not be applicable to construction equipment used in connection with emergency work.
(d) Helicopters shall not be used for construction purposes for more than two hours in any single day or more than four hours in any single week.
(Amended by Ord. 309-73, App. 8/10/73; Ord. 278-08, File No. 081119, App. 11/25/2008)
It shall be unlawful for any person, between the hours of 8:00 p.m. of any day and 7:00 a.m. of the following day to erect, construct, demolish, excavate for, alter or repair any building or structure if the noise level created thereby is in excess of the ambient noise level by 5 dBA at the nearest property plane, unless a special permit therefor has been applied for and granted by the Director of Public Works or the Director of Building Inspection. In granting such special permit the Director of Public Works or the Director of Building Inspection shall consider: if construction noise in the vicinity of the proposed work site would be less objectionable at night than during daytime because of different population levels or different neighboring activities if obstruction and interference with traffic, particularly on streets of major importance, would be less objectionable at night than during daytime; if the kind of work to be performed emits noises at such a low level as to not cause significant disturbance in the vicinity of the work site, if the neighborhood of the proposed work site is primarily residential in character wherein sleep could be disturbed: if great economic hardship would occur if the work were spread over a longer timers if the work will abate or prevent hazard to life or property; and if the proposed night work is in the general public interest. The Director of Public Works or the Director of Building Inspection shall prescribe such conditions, working times, types of construction equipment to be used, and permissible noise emissions, as required in the public interest.
The provisions of this Section shall not be applicable to emergency work.
(Added by Ord. 274-72, App. 9/20/72; Ord. 278-08, File No. 081119, App. 11/25/2008)
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